Quotes of the day

posted at 10:41 pm on October 16, 2013 by Allahpundit

At the last GOP conference meeting of the two-week government shutdown, no lawmakers went to the microphones to give their take.

Instead, after Speaker John Boehner told Republicans they had “fought the good fight,” they all rose up to offer a standing ovation. “It was one of the easiest meetings we’ve ever had,” says Representative Mick Mulvaney of South Carolina…

“We all agree Obamacare is an abomination. We all agree taxes are too high. We all agree spending is too high. We all agree Washington is getting in the way of job growth. We all agree we have a real debt crisis that will cripple future generations. We all agree on these fundamental conservative principles. … We must not confuse tactics with principles. The differences between us are dwarfed by the differences we have with the Democratic Party, and we can do more for the American people united,” he told them.

***

“Republicans always had one of two choices,” Kibbe said. “They could fight against Democrats who were completely intransigent – they said ‘I’m not going to negotiate.’ Or they could capitulate early on.”

Kibbe replied that he thought he did. “What we accomplished was fighting,” he said. “It’s important in Washington D.C. to step up to the plate and actually stand for something.”

***

In a sign of the internal backlash against the right wing of the House Republican Conference, Louisiana Republican Charles Boustany questioned the political allegiances and motivations of his tea party-aligned colleagues and said they had put the GOP majority at risk in the current shutdown fight.

[H]e pointed the blame squarely at tea party lawmakers who he said were more concerned about bolstering their conservative bona fides than governing.

“Their allegiance is not to the members in the conference. Their allegiance is not to the leadership team and to conservative values,” he said. “Their allegiance is to these outside Washington DC interest groups that raise money and go after conservative Republicans.”

***

Ted Cruz and Mike Lee may not have been able to strike a death blow to Obamacare today, but they were able to fight a fight that would have been impossible before them. They have now made it less and less possible for Republicans to collaborate with Democrats to fix or stabilize Obamacare…

The establishment has given conservatives a brilliant opportunity to advance against them and then against the Democrats. As Obamacare now goes into effect full swing, conservatives can show that they tried to stop it while Mitch McConnell and so many others sat and watched from a cozy booth the Capitol Hill Club leaving the fighting to others while they did everything possible to undermine the fight.

As more Americans watch Obamacare fail them through the Republican primary season, conservatives will be able to put the focus on Republicans who funded Obamacare instead of fighting it. Whether they like it or not, Republicans in Congress will find their names on ballots in 2014. They cannot hide or escape fate.

***

Grover Norquist isn’t happy with the Defunders. The Americans for Tax Reform president told reporters today that they have a lot of apologies to make and bridges to re-build.

“It’d be a good idea if they stopped referring to other Republicans as Hitler appeasers because they opposed the strategy they put forward which failed,” Norquist says. “I think if you make a mistake as big as what they did, you owe your fellow senators and congressmen a big apology — and your constituents, as well, because nothing they did advanced the cause of repealing or dismantling Obamacare.”…

“They hurt the conservative movement, they hurt people’s health care, they hurt the country’s economic situation and they hurt the Republican party,” he says. “And a lot of congressmen and senators are not going to win because we spent three months chasing our own tail — or at least, parts of the conservative movement spent three months chasing their own tail.”…

“These are the people who said, ‘Plan: Step One, Invade Iraq. Step Two, It turns into Kansas,’” Norquist says. “Could I ask if there’s anything in between Step One and Step Two? ‘Oh ye of little faith.’”

***

“In conventional terms, it seems inexplicable, but Senator Cruz and his adherents do not view things in conventional terms. They look back over the past half-century, including the supposedly golden era of Ronald Reagan, and see the uninterrupted forward march of the American left. Entitlement spending never stopped growing. The regulatory state continued to expand. The national debt grew and grew and finally in the Obama years, exploded. They see an American population becoming unrecognizable from the free and self-reliant people they thought they knew. And they see the Republican Party as having utterly failed to stop the drift toward an unfree nation supervised by an overweening and bloated bureaucracy. They are not interested in Republican policies that merely slow the growth of this leviathan. They want to stop it and reverse it. And they want to show their supporters they’ll try anything to bring that about.

“And if some of those things turn out to be reckless and doomed, well so be it.”

***

The latest Pew Research Center poll is chock full of data revealing an emerging rift between tea party-aligned Republicans and the rest of the party. But if there is one area of relative agreement, it’s this: a belief that tea party is independent from the GOP.

More than half of all Republicans (51 percent) say the the tea party is separate. Only about three in 10 say it is part of the Republican Party. Nearly equal shares of tea party Republicans and Republican-leaning independents (52 percent) and non-tea party Republicans and GOP-leaning independents (55 percent) say the movement is separate from the GOP…

The question is how strong that link is and where it’s headed in the future. It’s clearly eroded in recent months: The poll shows a drop in tea party favorability among conservative, moderate and liberal Republicans since June.

***

In its statement on the senate deal, Freedom Works asserts “The line separating the Democrats and the Republican establishment is fading- it might have disappeared today. This is about Washington insiders versus the rest of America now.” Leaving aside the fact that many real Americans outside the establishment do not see eye to eye with Freedom Works, this seems like just another version of the beloved mantra of Naderites, Anarchists and other outfits on the political periphery: There’s not a dime’s worth of difference between the two parties. And I think that is nonsense. It’s one thing to say that the GOP is too liberal or the Democrats are too conservative, statements that have often been not merely defensible but accurate, depending on where you sit on the political spectrum. But the notion that there is no meaningful difference between the two parties is just silly. Even if supposed RINOs John McCain or Mitt Romney had been elected, the policies we have today would be very, very different. If McCain won, we might have had less than ideal healthcare reforms, but we wouldn’t have gotten ObamaCare. If Mitt Romney had won, regardless of what was in his heart, his vows to Republican voters would have required him to undo ObamaCare, perhaps not entirely but certainly very significantly.

Let’s simply agree that for the sake of argument that the deal hashed out by McConnell is awful. He was left with no good options. No fair minded person can really argue that this predicament is where the Republican leadership wants to be. When the Japanese signed their surrender to the Americans, it would be ridiculous to say that the “line separating the Japanese and the Americans disappeared today.” The Japanese simply lost and that they tried to lose on the best terms possible. The same goes for the GOP. A Japanese nationalist would be on firmer ground criticizing the Japanese leadership for losing, and a libertarian populist — or even an establishment “RINO” — could likewise condemn failures of GOP leadership, whatever they may be. But as an analytical matter those failures simply don’t mean that we have anything like a single mono-ideological party called the “establishment.”

***

Senate Republicans knew the House GOP conference was divided, and they knew Boehner’s hold on his conference was shaky, but they were still stunned by the GOP’s utter failure to accomplish anything.

“They are a majority party that wants to be a minority party,” the Senate Republican aide said of the House GOP. “This is not how a majority party acts. The majority party takes the power that it has and puts it to use. And in this case, they refused to use the power they had because they would rather rail against the majority that they should be trying to deal with.”

“They showed they would rather be in the minority than have to deal with a Democratic majority in the Senate and a Democratic president.”

***

If no understanding can be reached between Republican and conservative leaders, then one of the two groups will be destroyed — either the party, or the movement. When I see hard-core conservative lawmakers like Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, and Raul Labrador, R-Idaho circling the wagons around Speaker Boehner today, that’s a sign that conservative leaders have a lot more to lose. Recall that Labrador wouldn’t even vote for Boehner for Speaker. Yet at this juncture, he seems to appreciate the situation the Speaker was boxed into.

Are GOP leaders also at risk? Yes, but in a much less meaningful sense. They can lose their majorities. (Recall that this didn’t work out so well for conservatives last time, when Democrats took control and passed Obamacare.) Or the leaders could lose their positions within the party. But yesterday’s events proved that they are relatively powerless within the party anyway. Sure, you can topple Boehner, Cantor, and McConnell, but unless the conservative leadership embraces realism, all you get is another group of party leaders you can put into unrealistic positions, whom you can’t work with, who will gradually become less and less willing even to bother trying to work with you.

Consider the gains the pro-life movement has made over the years within the Republican Party, state legislation, the courts, and public opinion. There is no cause I believe more worthy in all the world. Yet where would pro-lifers be today had they instead simply and inflexibly demanded a government shutdown unless and until abortion was abolished? Pro-lifers figured out a way to work within the system and advance the ball.

The reconciliation that’s needed now will be difficult because of the current (and very predictable) bitterness caused by the perceived sell-out on the one side and the moving of the goalposts on the other. But neither the GOP nor conservatism can stand independently of one another. As they once said of the disunity among the colonies, the only option are to “Join or Die.”

***

As [one GOP strategist] noted, “Before the shutdown it wasn’t plausible that Democrats could regain the House next year. It may be plausible now, but we aren’t sure. But a mediocre year in 2014 for Republicans could improve the chances of a Democratic House takeover in 2016, a presidential year.”

“We need to have good years in (what should be) good years, because you know we are going to have bad years in bad years,” he continued, worrying that the last two weeks have turned lemonade back into a lemon for House Republicans.

All of this leaves two questions. First, are we going to see a replay of the last few weeks in January and February, when the current budget deal expires? And second, will a full-scale Republican civil war — which could be played out in Senate races from Kentucky to Kansas and Mississippi — follow?

She added that the tea party should “consider whether they want to be the name-callers of the drama,” noting that the conservative grassroots has a penchant for calling Republicans who disagree with their approaches “RINOs” and “the surrender caucus.”

“Hecklers,” Kissel added.

“Dumb stuff,” Noonan agreed. “Stop it. You’re grown up. You’re big people in a big drama that may be a big evolution. Sit down. Get along. Work it out.”

Breaking on Hot Air

Blowback

Note from Hot Air management: This section is for comments from Hot Air's community of registered readers. Please don't assume that Hot Air management agrees with or otherwise endorses any particular comment just because we let it stand. A reminder: Anyone who fails to comply with our terms of use may lose their posting privilege.

I’m hardly a member of the Otto von Bismarck fan club, but I always liked his line about politics being the “art of the possible.” I’m open to any serious criticism of the GOP for failing to do the possible. But it’s a hallmark of populist passion to condemn men for failing to do the impossible.

this is the last line from Jonah’s post. I don’t even know what this means…and i’m a Jonah fan.

the only people criticizing conservatives for failing to do the impossible are those like McCain…always at the ready with a stab in the back to anyone that disagrees with him.

Perhaps we should not use the term RINO…maybe it just confuses people. What I don’t like is cronyism. State run capitalism is a big threat to this country. Central planning naturally leads to 1. Graft and 2. malinvestment

these are the big threats. I think Norquist is a crony. And, honestly I have become a little suspicious that the cronies don’t like taxes too much. But wait..the cronies leech off this country…time to pay up guys.

nothing is more disgusting that a crony like Buffett who cheats the government out of 30B so he can live in immortality.

ok, so that sounds a little like ows. A new party could maybe wrap around the true populism. Barry and WS has played us like suckers…everyone knows that.

“We all agree Obamacare is an abomination. We all agree taxes are too high. We all agree spending is too high. We all agree Washington is getting in the way of job growth. We all agree we have a real debt crisis that will cripple future generations. We all agree on these fundamental conservative principles. …

We all agree that it’s proven once again that the Republicans wont’ do squat about any of these issues!

or just supinely managing the country leftward in the name of being, in Mr. Sununu’s words, “adults.”

Axe on October 16, 2013 at 11:29 PM

The GOP is going the way of the Tories. It will never repeal Error404Care without broad bipartisan support (unlike the Democrats, who rammed this crap sandwich down our throats on a strictly party-line vote). From now on – unless there is a sea change – it will run, as every Conservative candidate in the UK has since 1948, which is to say, that he or she will be a better manager of the system than Labour the Democrats. Even Margaret Thatcher didn’t seek to repeal the NHS although she should have because it is horrible.

Either conservatives and libertarians will ‘progress’ and join with the GOPe or they will go the way of Ukip.

Yes, this whole ordeal was an unmitigated disaster and devastating unforced error, but I’ve been pleased to see those that have some principles do something other than rollover and acquiesce to the demands of Barack Obama, who has already added more to the national debt than Bush, an irresponsible spender himself, did in 8 years.

I’m not going to answer Midwestprincesse’s follow-up question because we’re not getting to 51 in the Senate. Instead, I’ll tell you how the 14 Rs who are up in 2014 voted on the Dingy/MiniCave Crap Sandwich:

- Cornyn nay on both cloture and final passage
- Enzi nay on both
- Risch nay on both
- Roberts nay on both
- Scott nay on final passage only (he was a yea on cloture)
- Sessions nay on both
- Inhofe MIA on both

The rest signed onto the Crap Sandwich hook, line and sinker.

Steve Eggleston on October 16, 2013 at 11:37 PM

This tally has ZERO, absolutely ZERO meaning – two “nays” in this vote means: “I knew it would pass and I’m up for re-rlection, so I had to get some cred to bring back and LIE to the people with.”

Tell me who voted “yes” on the cloture vote to allow Harry Reid to bring the House Bill to the floor AFTER Cruz’s speech – THAT is a LOT more telling……….

A “yea” for cloture in THAT vote means: “I am a Democrat and an Establishment traitor….”

H R 2775 YEA-AND-NAY 16-Oct-2013 10:18 PM
QUESTION: On Motion to Concur in the Senate Amendments
BILL TITLE: To condition the provision of premium and cost-sharing subsidies under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act upon a certification that a program to verify household income and other qualifications for such subsidies is operational, and for other purposes
======================

The Republicans could. The makeup is currently 53-45-2. They could easily pick up Alaska, Arkansas, Montana, and South Dakota to make it 49-49-2. Then all they would need would two out of West Virginia, North Carolina, and Louisiana, which look very doable, while not losing any that the have to defend. The problem is that McConnell will still more than likely be the Republican leader and will still refuse to fight for any meaningful reforms.

She added that the tea party should “consider whether they want to be the name-callers of the drama,” noting that the conservative grassroots has a penchant for calling Republicans who disagree with their approaches “RINOs” and “the surrender caucus.”

Speaking of name calling, what about all the Democrats and RINO’s calling the us hijackers, hostage takers, suicide bombers and other violent terms? Cornyn accused the tea party of committing violence against other Republicans just last week.

Oh, but that doesn’t count because DC insiders are the good guys and are above the law. It’s all the American people out here in the real world, outside the Washington DC bubble, that are the problem.

As [one GOP strategist] noted, “Before the shutdown it wasn’t plausible that Democrats could regain the House next year. It may be plausible now, but we aren’t sure. But a mediocre year in 2014 for Republicans could improve the chances of a Democratic House takeover in 2016, a presidential year.”

Thank you Cruze for an early holiday gift. If you don’t like the experience of divided government with the GOP in control of only the House, just wait until the Dems can run the table.
Prediction- Obamacare will be extended to cover the unborn fetus, including free health club membership.

bayam on October 16, 2013 at 11:38 PM

It’s Cruz, stupid. Cruze is the name of your shitty car because welfare and gubmint security nets just don’t buy as much cheese as they used to, champ.
Obamacare will extend no such thing. Only death.
Enjoy your stool pigeon status, but always remember WHO made the democrats own ovama are.
It wasn’t Ayotte the slut, Lindsey the boy man, or McCain the walking useful idiot corpse.
It was a Cruz Missile.

My very mild asthma has started to show its fangs. I walk into a walk-in and feel like I’m suffocating. She wants to keep me out a month until whatever that’s causing the flare-up-might be the cotton in the air here(produce is near an entrance) diminishes.
What’s this about you being in VA?
Since when?

Thank you Cruze for an early holiday gift. If you don’t like the experience of divided government with the GOP in control of only the House, just wait until the Dems can run the table.
Prediction- Obamacare will be extended to cover the unborn fetus, including free health club membership.

Explain something to me, how are we going to get rid of McConnell when he worked in a zillion dollar earmark for Kentucky? Will the voters of Kentucky overlook that little perk? I’m truly sickened. How much more crooked can they get? What does Paul Rand say about this?

- Instead of trying to repeal Social Security, Eisenhower oversaw the addition of Disability “Insurance” to the program.
- Nixon did nothing to roll back Medicare and Medicaid even though, 4 years after implementation, it was clear they were busting their budgets by orders of magnitude. Also, he foisted the EPA and price/wage controls on the US.
- Reagan wasted a great opportunity to actually reform SocSecurity in 1983 with the pending bankruptcy of the OASI portion, then he signed off on the fraud-driven expansion of DI that shifted it from “permanently” self-sufficient to one that was within 2 months of collapse when Clinton and the Rats shifted around the FICA/SECA tax in November 1994 (and will be bankrupt again before we elect another President).
- When Republicans finally had full and undisputed (except for the threat of a filibuster) control of the 2/3rds of government that was elected, they massively expanded Medicare by adding on a prescription drug benefit, mandated ever-increasing amounts of corn-a-hole, and called it a day on entitlements.

Sorry about your asthma, could it be stuff in the Texas air this time of year that you aren’t use to. I am in VA for this month, I had some business to get taken care of, heading back to Florida in a couple of weeks. And speaking of stuff in the air, I was in the mountains of PA and NY and came away laryngitis and head congestion. Trees I assume.

I should have put the earphones on and blocked out all the “noise” going on. I was already frustrated trying to find Halloween treat for my 4 yr old pal. His Mom will kill me if I load him down with candy. Walked around for an hour trying to find something his Mom would approve of. Then came home, turned on this DC mess and just completed the frustration.

Even when EG suggested alcohol and I spiked my coffee. I am still spitting bullets.

This tally has ZERO, absolutely ZERO meaning – two “nays” in this vote means: “I knew it would pass and I’m up for re-rlection, so I had to get some cred to bring back and LIE to the people with.”

Tell me who voted “yes” on the cloture vote to allow Harry Reid to bring the House Bill to the floor AFTER Cruz’s speech – THAT is a LOT more telling……….

A “yea” for cloture in THAT vote means: “I am a Democrat and an Establishment traitor….”

williamg on October 16, 2013 at 11:47 PM

The yea list on cloture (there was only one cloture vote on this crap sandwich) is a lot longer, and I listed the 5 of the 14 up in 2014 who did vote nay on the single cloture vote.

Even though you probably won’t pay attention this time either, and it can be successfully argued that a “nay” on cloture for at least a few of them (for example Cornyn) was an arse-covering move, I’ll give you the full list of 16 who voted nay on cloture:

Oh, and williamg, you can cross-reference that to the start of the ping-pog to find the minority of the minority of the minorty that got steamrolled by both halves of the bipartisan Party-In-Government yourself.

Even though you probably won’t pay attention this time either, and it can be successfully argued that a “nay” on cloture for at least a few of them (for example Cornyn) was an arse-covering move, I’ll give you the full list of 16 who voted nay on cloture:

What Cruz and Lee accomplished was full exposure of the truly vindictive, partisan, and punitive “mean-spirited” natures of Obama, Reid, and the entire democrat leadership.

Americans will not forget being arbitrarily and spitefully barred from open air monuments to our war veterans, and most especially will not forget the the bizarre and malevolent behavior of the NPS throughout the nation.

If this entire episode portends to be a harbinger for things to come, we should be very glad that Cruz and Lee shined the spotlight into a very dark side of the Obama regime for all to see.

Something I did once..
A little cheep Halloween basket- put a dvd movie,popcorn bag,candy bar, and a soda in it. Did The movie Casper (u know the friendly ghost)
It was for a friends kid whose B-day was Halloween.

Oh, and williamg, you can cross-reference that to the start of the ping-pog to find the minority of the minority of the minorty that got steamrolled by both halves of the bipartisan Party-In-Government yourself.

Steve Eggleston on October 17, 2013 at 12:10 AM

already got that………I’ve watched every step of the game-playing here……..and there should be A LOT of empty bags left in The Senate after this…….

Something I did once..
A little cheep Halloween basket- put a dvd movie,popcorn bag,candy bar, and a soda in it. Did The movie Casper (u know the friendly ghost)
It was for a friends kid whose B-day was Halloween.

bazil9 on October 17, 2013 at 12:13 AM

ty ty ty…now that has possibilities I just need to switch out the candy and soda for something “healthy” but I love the idea of Casper!!!